Tiger Woods in contention with nine holes to play at Hero World Challenge

Tiger Woods is at it again. The 82-time Tour winner is in the running to win the Hero World Challenge for the sixth time in his career.

Despite the Challenge not being an official Tour event, it still awards World Ranking points, so a Woods victory is not for nothing. After starting the event with a sloppy 72 Wednesday, he has rallied to take the lead with just nine holes to play.

Woods has made just one bogey in his last 45 holes, adding three more birdies on his front nine Saturday at Albany. Two of them came on par 5s, which were rather rudimentary, but he added an 8-footer for birdie on the par-4 7th.

Woods (14 under) is getting a helluva battle from his partner, Justin Thomas, who also sits at 14 under. Thomas and Woods are playing for the 14th time in competition. Woods has never triumphed over Thomas in any of those stroke play rounds. Thomas has won 10 of those mini matches, but it’s going to be tight for the two Saturday afternoon.

Henrik Stenson is Woods’ best competition at the moment. Stenson was 15 under through eight holes, is in the group behind Woods and Thomas, playing alongside Gary Woodland. You can follow all the action on our leaderboard here.

Woods and 10 other American players will jump on a jet to Australia after the event finishes Saturday evening, turning their gaze to match play at the Presidents Cup. Perhaps they’ll be celebrating someone’s victory.

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